In prior art patents, sodium alginate, carrageenan, propylene glycol alginate, and sodium calcium alginate, along with a variety of other carbohydrate gums, are used as a film coating media for a variety of encapsulated products and are disclosed with other water soluble gums as an encapsulating media. Many prior art patents disclose sweeteners, flavors, and other ingredients encapsulated with alginates and other carbohydrate gums, and used in chewing gum to modify release of the encapsulated material.
Chewing gum compositions typically include gum base, flavoring and bulking and sweetening agents, as well as other optional ingredients such as softeners and coloring. As gum is chewed for an extended period of time, the taste sensation is reduced, thereby resulting in the impression that the gum has lost most of its flavor. In reality, most of the original flavor, about 70 to about 90 percent, is still present in the chewing gum. A need, therefore, exists for a method of increasing the amount of flavor released from chewing gum compositions as they are chewed over a period of time.